Improvs at St. Sulpice.............

[Corno Dolce]

Found these excellent improvisations by David Briggs on the "Wonder Machine" of St. Sulpice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYl2s...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOQvxK813J0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaKVueGVfQE

[teddy]

Fascinating CD. How do you cope with five keyboards at once?

teddy

[Corno Dolce]

As you noticed, David Briggs does nicely on a five manual instrument. In regards to five manuals, especially at St. Sulpice, each manual controls a division of pipes of varying lengths and timbres. The pedal is its own division. You get dynamic differences, timbre differences and so on...

[GoneBaroque]

Marvelous CD. And what a thrill to see two Grand Masters sitting side by side on the bench. thank you.

[Corno Dolce]

GB,

You bet! Olivier Latry, Daniel Roth, and David Briggs certainly can "musicize"........

[dll927]

Teddy -- you don't "cope with five keyboards at once". Most of us have only two hands. Pipe organs have pipes in different "divisions" each of which is controlled by one of the manuals.

In the case of St. Sulpice, since it is a mechanical organ, the couplers cause the keys on any coupled manuals to also depress, making it look like some type of magic. (Electrical-action organs don't do that.) Also in the case of that organ, the first (lowest) manual is the "couple to" manual, except I think at some point there was a coupler added for Recit to Positif. That organ celebrates 150 years this year -- 1862. Some testimony to craftsmanship and regular maintenance. It still raises the roof, at least figuratively. And it has known some stellar players.

[teddy]

Thaqnks for the explanation, but it still looks like magic to me. Now I must go and check the mirror. There is some bloke looking back at me

teddy

[Krummhorn]

Thaqnks for the explanation, but it still looks like magic to me. Now I must go and check the mirror. There is some bloke looking back at me ... teddy

BOO!!

Mastering multiple keyboards takes some getting used to, but it permits the organist to have different settings on each manual, so as to give more contrast to a piece of music instead of playing the same stops (sounds) all the time. And, as mentioned, in those large organs, the manuals do couple to each other either mechanically or electrically, so in in effect, one could play all 5 manuals at once, but both their hands would be on one manual.

[teddy]

As far as I am concerned Lars it is in the same league as the 42 string guitar. Way out of mine. Thanks for the explanation.

teddy